Four Heads
Framed: 20 1/4 × 18 3/4 × 1 3/4 inches (51.44 × 47.63 × 4.45 cm)
The Lawrence Gallery. Eighth Exhibition May 1836. A Catalogue of One Hundred Original Drawings by Albert Dürer and Titian Vecelli, collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence, Samuel Woodburn and Company, London, May 1836, no. 45, as Four Heads in Caricature.
Dürer in America: His Graphic Work, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., April 25-June 6, 1971, no. XX, as Four Heads in Profile.
Old Master Drawings from American Collections, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, April 29-June 13, 1976, no. 175, as Four Heads in Profile.
Nuremberg: A Renaissance City, 1500–1618, Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, University of Texas, Austin; Spencer
Museum of Art, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS, November 7–December 18,
1983; University of California, Santa Barbara, February 15–March 18, 1984 (Lawrence
and Santa Barbara only).
Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, Washington University Gallery of Art, Saint Louis, MO, September
22-December 3, 1989, unnumbered, as Four Heads.
Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 17-March 25, 1990, no cat., as Four Heads.
Master Drawings from Polish Collections, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, April 17-June 6, 1993. NAMA addition.
Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 23-August 18, 1996; The Cummer Museum and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, September 20-November 29, 1996; The Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, December 21, 1996-March 2, 1997, no. 4, as Four Heads.
Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 12-September 6, 1998, no cat., as Four Heads.
Dürer and Cranach. Art and Humanism in Renaissance Germany, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, October 9, 2007-January 6, 2008.
Willibald Imhoff (1519-1580), Nuremberg, no. 106, by 1580 [1];
Comte Antoine-François Andréossy (1761-1828), Montauban, France, by 1828 [2];
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830), London, by 1830 [3];
Purchased from Lawrence’s estate by Samuel Woodburn (1786-1853), London, by May 1836 [4];
Defer-Dumesnil collection, by 1882-1900 [5];
Purchased at their sale, Catalogue de Tableaux, dessins, aquarelles, gouaches et miniatures des écoles allemande, espagnole, flamand, française, hollandaise et italienne; Œuvres remarquables de Albert Durer [sic]…composant la collection Defer-Dumesnil, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, lot 40, by Danlos, May 10, 1900 [6];
With Hans E. Schwabe, Manchester, UK, by 1955;
Consigned by Schwabe to dealer Herbert Bier (1905-1981), London, stock no. 1516, by November 8, 1955-June 13, 1956 [7];
Consigned by Bier to Schaeffer Galleries, Wiesbaden and New York, June 13, 1956-January 28, 1958 [8];
Purchased from Bier by Schaeffer Galleries, New York, January 28-November 10, 1958 [9];
Purchased from Schaeffer Galleries by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1958.
NOTES:
[1] Willibald Imhoff was the grandson of Dürer’s friend Willibald Pirckheimer. This drawing is no. 106 in the inventory of Imhoff’s Dürer collection, as published in Joseph Heller, Das Leben und die Werke Albrecht Dürers (Bamberg, Germany: Kunz, 1827), 84.
[2] The drawing is recorded as having been in the Andréossy collection in The Lawrence Gallery. Eighth Exhibition May 1836. A Catalogue of One Hundred Original Drawings by Albert Dürer and Titian Vecelli, collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence, exh. cat. (London: C. Richards Print, 1836), 16.
[3] Lawrence’s collector’s mark appears on the drawing (Lugt 2245). See also “Inventory of the Collection of Drawings by Old Masters formed by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., drawn up while the collection was still in his house.” Typed transcript of a manuscript in the library of the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1927. Copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial file.
[4] This drawing was no. 45 in The Lawrence Gallery. Eighth Exhibition May 1836. A Catalogue of One Hundred Original Drawings by Albert Dürer and Titian Vecelli, collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence, exh. cat. (London: C. Richards Print, 1836), 16. According to William Roberts, in Memorials of Christie’s: a Record of Art Sales from 1766 to 1866, p. 126, Lawrence’s collection of old masters drawings, “was purchased by [his] principal creditors, Messrs. Woodburn, for £16,000.”
[5] The Defer-Dumesnil collectors’ mark appears on the drawing (Lugt 739).
[6] A copy of the sale catalogue in the library of the Philadelphia Museum of Art includes a handwritten annotation next to this lot: ‘Danlos.’ A. Danlos was one of the experts for the sale.
[7] Herbert Bier first offered the drawing to the Nelson-Atkins in 1955 but at that time the museum chose not to make the purchase. According to Herbert Bier, in a letter to Hans Schwabe, January 1, 1958 (erroneously dated 1957): “I wrote to Dr. Schaeffer on the 15th October 1957 asking him to send me a word as to the progress of his endeavors to sell the drawing.… I had no further news and therefore wrote again on the 27th December.… I had to remind him that he received the drawing on approval from me and that your ownership in this particular case was incidental. The drawing was sent to Dr. Schaeffer at a Wiesbaden address on the 13th June 1956.… As Dr. Schaeffer did not sell the drawing in Germany he had it sent to the USA without my consent.” Herbert Bier Papers, Wallace Collection, London, BIER/C/1/011, copy in Nelson-Atkins curatorial file.
[8] Ibid. Herbert Bier Papers, Wallace Collection, London. Copies of stock card (BIER/S/2/005/181), stock book entry (BIER/S/1/003) and photograph (BIER/P/002), copies in Nelson-Atkins curatorial file. According to Hans Schaeffer, Schaeffer Galleries, in a letter to Bier, 14 January 1958: “I regret to say that up to now I have been unable to sell the Dürer drawing of four heads; all my attempts have failed owing to the difficult subject; this only repeats your own experience, when you tried to sell the drawing in England.” Herbert Bier Papers, Wallace Collection, London, BIER/C/1/011.
[9] Bier’s receipt for Schaeffer Galleries’s first payment, January 28, 1958, Herbert Bier Papers, Wallace Collection, London, BIER/C/1/011.
Joseph Heller, Das Leben und die Werke Albrecht Dürers (Bamberg, Germany: Kunz, 1827), 84, as ßier [sic] Mannskopf hinter einander.
A catalogue of the first part of the very valuable and extensive collection of engravings, in the portfolio of Sir Thomas Lawrence: late president of the Royal Academy, deceased ...which (by order of the executor) will be sold by auction, pt. 3, Original Drawings (London: Christie, Manson and Woods, May 20-21, 1830).
The Lawrence Gallery. Eighth Exhibition May 1836. A Catalogue of One Hundred Original Drawings by Albert Dürer and Titian Vecelli, collected by Sir Thomas Lawrence, exh. cat. (London: C. Richards Print, 1836), 16, as Four Heads in Caricature.
Charles Ephrussi, Albrecht Dürer et ses dessins (Paris: Quantin, 1882), 127, 365, (repro.), as Étude comparées de têtes d’hommes and Quatre têtes d’hommes à la suite.
Friedrich Lippmann, Zeichnungen von Albrecht Dürer in Nachbildungen, vol. 4 (Berlin: Grote, 1896), no. 378, p. 11, (repro.).
Hermann Knackfuss, Dürer (London: 1899), 145, 149, (repro.), as Study of the Varieties of Facial Type.
Catalogue de Tableaux, dessins, aquarelles, gouaches et miniatures des écoles allemande, espagnole, flamand, française, hollandaise et italienne; Œuvres remarquables de Albert Durer [sic]…composant la collection Defer-Dumesnil (Paris: Hôtel Drouot, May 10-12, 1900), 21, as Quatre têtes de profil.
Robert Bruck, ed., Das Skizzenbuch von Albrecht Dürer in der Königlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu Dresden (Strasbourg: J.H. Ed. Heitz, 1905), (repro.).
Hippolyte Mireur, Dictionnaire des Ventes d’Art en France et à l’Étranger pendant les XVIIIe et XIXe Siècles, vol. 2, C-D (Paris: Maisons d’Éditions d’Œuvres Artistiques, 1911), 591, as Quatre têtes de profil.
Inventory of the Collection of Drawings by Old Masters Formed by Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., drawn up while the collection was still in his house (transcribed by permission of the Committee of the Burlington Fine Arts Club from a MS. in the Library of the Club) (London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1927), 21, as Four Heads in profile in the stile [sic] of L. da Vinci.
Eduard Flechsig, Albrecht Dürer: Sein Leben und seine künstlerische Entwicklung, vol. 2 (Berlin: Grote, 1931), 343-44, as Vier männliche Profilköpfe.
Hans Tietze and Erika Tietze-Conrat, Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Dürers, vol. 2, Der reife Dürer, pt. 1 (Basel: Holbein Verlag, 1937), no. 563, pp. 91, 245, (repro.), as Vier Profilköpfe.
Friedrich Winkler, Die Zeichnungen Albrecht Dürers, vol. 3, 1510-1520 (Berlin: Deutscher Verein für Kunstwissenschaft, 1938), no. 657, p. 76-77, (repro.), as Vier Profilköpfe, teilweise karikiert.
Erwin Panofsky, Albrecht Dürer, vol. 2 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1945), no. 1124, p. 114, (repro.), as Four Profiles.
Wilhelm Waetzoldt, Dürer and His Times (London: Phaidon, 1950), 110.
“Notiz über Ankauf durch die Nelson Art Gallery, Kansas City,” Die Kunst und das schöne Heim 52, Anhang (1954): 223.
“Notiz über Erwerbung durch die W. R. Nelson Art Gallery in Kansas City,” Die Weltkunst 24, no. 10 (1954): 6.
Hans Rupprich, Dürer: Schriftlicher Nachlass, vol. 2 (Berlin: Deutscher Verein fur Kunstwissenschaft, 1956-69), 442n2, as Studienblatt mit vier Profilköpfen, teilweise karikiert.
Friedrich Winkler, Albrecht Dürer: Leben und Werke (Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1957), 264.
Patrick J. Kelleher, “Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Acquisitions,” Bulletin (The Nelson Gallery and Atkins Museum) vol. 1, no. 2 (December 1958): 11, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Jan Bialostocki, “Opus Quinque Dierum: Dürer’s ‘Christ Among the Doctors’ and Its Sources,” Journal of the Warburg Institute 22 (1959): 23-25.
H.L.F. “Kansas City: Depression-baby 25 Years Later,” Art News 57, no. 9 (1959): 40, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Ross E. Taggart, ed., Handbook of the Collections in the William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 4th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1959), 85, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Christopher White, “A Recently Discovered Drawing by Dürer,” The Burlington Magazine 103, no. 694 (January 1961): 23, as Four profile heads.
Bernard Chaet, The Art of Drawing (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1970), 167-68, (repro.) as Four Heads.
Joanna Eagle, “‘Hand-drawings’ by Germany’s greatest artist,” Smithsonian 2, no. 2 (May 1971): 44, 48, (repro.), as Four Heads in Profile.
Mahonri Sharp Young, “The Loving Eye, the Cunning Hand,” Apollo 94, no. 113 (July 1971): 44, (repro.), as Four Heads in Profile.
Erwin Panofsky, The Life and Art of Albrecht Dürer (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1971), unpaginated, (repro.).
Donald Posner, Annibale Caracci: A Study in the Reform of Italian Painting around 1590, vol. 1 (London: Phaidon, 1971), 68, 70, (repro.), as Physiognomical Studies.
Charles W. Talbot, ed., Dürer in America: His Graphic Work, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1971), 70-71, (repro.), as Four Heads in Profile.
Denys Sutton, “Editorial: The Colonel’s Gift,” Apollo 96, no. 130 (December 1972): 472, (repro.).
Donald B. Kuspit, “Dürer’s Scientific Side,” Art Journal 32, no. 2 (Winter 1972-73): 170, (repro.), as Four Caricatured Heads.
Ross E. Taggart and George L. McKenna, eds., Handbook of the Collections in The William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, Kansas City, Missouri, vol. 1, Art of the Occident, 5th ed. (Kansas City, MO: William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, 1973), 180, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Walter L. Strauss, The Complete Drawings of Albrecht Dürer, vol. 3, 1510-1519 (New York: Abaris Books, 1974), no. 1513/4, p. 1344, (repro.), as Four Profiles.
Ebria Feinblatt, Old Master Drawings from American Collections, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976), 158-59, (repro.), as Four Heads in Profile.
Elizabeth Perlmutter, “Master drawings, voluptuous boxes,” Art News 75, no. 7, Special Prints Issue (September 1976): 75, (repro.), as Four Heads in Profile.
Bernard Chaet, The Art of Drawing, rev. ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978), 160, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Nuremberg: A Renaissance City, 1500–1618, exh. cat. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1983).
Fritz Koreny, Albrecht Dürer und die Tier- und Pflanzenstudien der Renaissance, exh. cat. (Munich: Prestel, 1985), 262, (repro.), as Vier Mannsköpf hinter einander.
Ellen R. Goheen, The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1988), 41, (repro.).
Roger Ward and Mark S. Weil, Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri, exh. cat. (St. Louis, MO: Washington University Gallery of Art, 1989), 6-7, 9, 13, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 149, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 11, 43-45, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Dürer and Cranach. Art and Humanism in Renaissance Germany, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2007).
Angela Campbell, C. Richard Johnson, Jr., and William Sethares, “From Rags to Riches: pursuing the Connection Between Albrecht Dürer’s Linen Papers and the Fugger Family’s Mercantile Trademark,” The Quarterly: The Journal of The British Association of Paper Historians, no. 124 (October 2022): 1–10.
Angela Campbell et al., “Across the Ocean, Under the See: Analyzing the Trident Watermark in a Recently Rediscovered Drawing by Albrecht Dürer,” IPH (International Association of Paper Historians) Congress Book, 2021 23 (2023): 75–89, (repro.), as Four Heads.
Christof Metzger, Albrecht Dürer, The Complete Drawings (Cologne: Taschen-Verlag, forthcoming).
